Some companies such as retail stores, may employ a number of telephone agents for answering inquires, taking orders, doing telemarketing and the like. Incoming calls to a publicized directory number are commonly distributed to telephone answering agents by the central office or PBX switching system to which the agents are connected. This can be done in accordance with a predefined algorithm, such as forwarding the next call to the agent who has been idle the longest. Call distribution schemes which are integral to a central office require significant overhead and are expensive on a per-agent basis when the number of agents is relatively small. Call distribution may be provided by customer premises PBX systems and key telephone systems. However, such prior art systems require telephone switching equipment on customer premises and may require special interfaces to a telephone central office. For a small company with a limited number of lines, the PBX systems and even the key systems can be expensive on a per-line basis. Systems for handling outgoing calls for telemarketing agents are known as well. One known system employs a computer which places calls to a list of customers by means of automatic dialing equipment and employs signal detection circuitry to determine when a called party answers. A switch on customer premises is used to connect the telephone lines to the agents. Problems of the prior art outgoing call management systems are the cost and inflexibility of the special equipment, such as additional switching equipment, which the customer has to supply and the difficulty of reliably performing such functions as detecting called party answer on an automated basis on the customer premises.